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Etymology data from Wiktionary via Wiktextract (CC BY-SA 4.0). Chinese character data from the 說文解字, the Taiwan MOE 國語辭典簡編本 (CC BY-ND 3.0 TW) and HSK/TOCFL lists.

Explanations are written by a local model (gemma4) and only published after a verification pass against the cited sources. How it works.

Chinese

爭

zhēng
to dispute; to fight
  • Pictogram
  • HSK 3
  • TOCFL 6
  • radical 爪
  • 8 strokes
  • 諍
  • 诤

Etymology graph

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  • derived
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  • meaning component
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Origin

Pictogram (象形) – two hands on a plowshare. The two hands are still visibile on top of the character (爪 and 彐), while the plowshare looks like a vertical hook in modern writing.

; "to dispute; to fight; to contend; to strive"

; "to lack; to owe"

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • partChinese爫
  • partChinese肀 “hand grabbing hair”

Words built on it: 淨, 靜

Meanings

character
  1. to dispute; to fight
  2. to contend
  3. to strive
  4. to lack; to be missing; still have; remaining
  5. to have a difference (expressed in conjunction with terms of physical distance)
  6. argumentative

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

爭：引也。从𠬪、𠂆。

Xu Shen, c. 100 CE — the first analytical dictionary of Chinese characters.

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 互不相讓的奪取、競求。 例：競爭、分秒必爭、爭先恐後

© Ministry of Education, Taiwan — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW, shown unaltered.

How 爭 was written 字形演變

  1. 爭 in Oracle bone script
    Oracle bone
    甲骨文
    Shang, c. 1250–1050 BCE
  2. 爭 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  3. 爭 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  4. 爭 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  5. 爭 in Regular script
    Regular
    楷書
    since c. 200 CE

Historical forms collected by the legacy etymfun dataset; most characters have several attested variants.

Sources

  • Structural decomposition (chaizi) — See upstream
  • Historical glyph forms (zdic.net 字形演变) — Rights unverified
  • HSK / TOCFL word lists — Facts (levels)
  • 教育部《國語辭典簡編本》 (Taiwan MOE) — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW
  • 說文解字 Shuowen Jiezi (Xu Shen, c. 100 CE) — Public domain
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 爭